The Bible and names in it

Proclaiming the Name of The One and Only Who Is and has Ever Been

The Creator

“The Maker should have honour from his works, they should tell forth his praise: and thus they should praise his name — by which his character is intended.
The name of JEHOVAH is written legibly upon his works, so that his power, wisdom, goodness, and other attributes are therein made manifest to thoughtful men, and thus his name is praised.
We can never extol him better than by repeating his name.” [The Treasury of David; Psalm 148, by Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-92)]

“Praise ye the LORD (Jehovah). Hallelujah!
The exhortation is to all things in earth or in heaven. Should they not all declare the glory of him for whose glory they are, and were created?
“JEHOVAH”, the one God, should be the one object of adoration, Hallelujah!”
-The Treasury of David; Psalm 150 by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92)

In the coming weeks we are going to look at how in history people tried to get rid of the Name of God and which efforts they did to destroy the Bible or when they did not succeed to take the Books away, to divide the world about the Name of God.

Spurgeon may have written “…the mind of man can never conceive an idea of the incomprehensible Jehovah…subtler than the secret power of electricity; infinitely above the most rarified forms of matter…” (A View of God’s Glory) Gods hand is be seen in the abundance of dynamic energy, the vigorous power in the Universe. Surely the Creator who does not tire out or grow weary (Isaiah 40:26, 28) shall love to let His people know His Name. He therefore took care that in the Book of Books, His Word, Written down by people “inspired of God.” (2 Timothy 3:16) “Men spoke from God as they were borne along by Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21)

Words, from who, to believe

People can wonder if we can believe the Bible and look at it as the writing of the living God. We shall discuss how God used people who He could consider as worthy to pen down what He as the All Mighty had to say. With an Almighty finger; each word in the Bible is dropped from the everlasting lips; each sentence was dictated by the Holy Spirit. Those incredible Words were vocally brought over from one generation to the other, and scribes did do their best to write over the Scriptures they had at hand.

Written over a 1,600-year period its writers lived at different times and came from many walks of life. Some were very educated or had a high position, others had no particular schooling. Under the writers we can find farmers, fishermen, and shepherds. Others were prophets, judges, and kings.
Moses was employed to write his histories with his fiery pen, butGod guided that pen.
It may be that Solomon gave forth words of consummate wisdom, but God directed his lips, and made the preacher eloquent.

When we go through the many texts which are delivered now on pieces of paper everywhere we should hear and find God speaking. For those who doubt that it is God’s voice, they should take a closer look how all those words are integrated in One Complete Work with a lot of predictions or prophesies which came fulfilled according the sayings in those Books.

That it are not man’s words we can see when we look at the characters and what they wrote about themselves and about things they could not know yet. All the material in the Bible covers thousands of years of history and relates in some way to the unfolding of God’s purpose. Despite the varied backgrounds of its writers, the Bible is harmonious from beginning to end. The Bible brings the history of mankind historically accurate and reliable, and is also scientifically accurate. It even contains information that was far ahead of its time. The books include not only the names but also the ancestry of individuals. In contrast to secular historians, who often do not mention the defeats of their own people, Bible writers were honest, even recording their own failings and those of their nation.

“The words are God’s words, the words of the Eternal, the Invisible, the Almighty, the Jehovahof this earth. This Bible is God’s Bible, and when I see it, I seem to hear a voice springing up from it, saying, “I am the book of God – read me. I am God’s writing; open my leaf, for I was penned by God; read it, forhe (Jehovah) is my author.”[A Sermon (No. 15) Delivered on Sabbath Evening, March 18, 1855, by the REV. C. H. Spurgeon At Exeter Hall, Strand.]

On what to rely

“The first Christians relied on the Old Testament as their chief religious book. To them it was of divine origin and authority.” (Dr. Samuel Davidson; The “Canon” The Encyclopaedia Britannica) Jesus/Jeshua/Yeshua was a Jew who knew the Words of God very well. He also read from the scrolls. So when he quoted the Holy Scriptures as known to all the Jews, the Tanakh (Hebrew: תַּנַ”ךְ‎, pronounced [taˈnaχ] or [təˈnax]; also Tenakh, Tenak, Tanach) he used the names as written down in the Torah (“Teaching”, also known as the Five Books of Moses), Nevi’im (“Prophets”) and Ketuvim (“Writings”).
“Jesus and the authors of the New Testament regarded the Hebrew Scriptures as God’s Word.” (How We Got the Bible; Chapter 13 from Reading the Bible with Understanding by Dr. Lane Burgland) When they quoted from the older works they did do that in respect of those text and told the people what was written, also using the names as they were used at that time.
“Jesus’ teachings are exclusively within Jewish values and teachings. Modern Christianity . . . does not adhere to many of Jesus’ original teachings. Early Christianity was an integral part of Judaism of the period. Jesus . . . never intended to either abandon Judaism, or to create a new religion. The creation of the independent Christian Church outside the framework of Judaism took place many years later by those who neither knew the man Jesus, nor the meanings of His difficult native Hebrew.” (Opher Segal, YD, vol. 5, no. 6.)

Which names to use

Today we can wonder if we also have to use those Hebrew names like they were written down in the Hebrew Scrolls. Because in those writings they used symbols standing for a consonant; while the reader must supply the appropriate vowel. About filling in those vowels a lot of discussion has gone on in the previous ages. A question posed is if people have to follow traditions or mesorah (מסורה, alt. מסורת) or the Masoretic Text which is in a form also already a written down version by tradition. In reference to the MasoreticText (MT) the word mesorah has a very specific meaning: the diacritic markings of the text of the Hebrew Bible and concise marginal notes in manuscripts (and later printings) of the Hebrew Bible which note textual details, usually about the precise spelling of words.

In the Middle East, Aramaic gave rise to the Hebrew and Nabataean abjads, which retained many of the Aramaic letter forms. Handy for the understanding what there has to be filled in is the Syriac script, a cursive variation of Aramaic. Jesus spoke Aramaic in his mother tongue. In the temple Hebrew was common and as the business language Greek was used.

Archaeologists and historians did already find several parts of Scriptures and through history every finding proofed that those writings we use today still say the same as the original found. In modern times the Dead Sea Scrolls have shown the Masoretic Text to be nearly identical to some texts of the Tanakh dating from 200 BCE but different from others. It is that Masoretic Text, next to the little bit and pieces we do have, which is by all believers and historians considered as the authoritative Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible. It is also regarded as Judaism‘s official version of the Tanakh. While the Masoretic Text defines the books of the Jewish canon, it also defines the precise letter-text of these biblical books, with their vocalization and accentuation known as the Masorah. The MT is also widely used as the basis for translations of the Old Testament in Protestant Bibles, and in recent years (since 1943) also for some Catholic Bibles, although the Eastern Orthodox continue to use the Septuagint, as they hold it to be divinely inspired.

The Holy Translators (Armenian: Surb Targmanichk) is a group of literary figures, and saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church, who founded the Armenian alphabet, translated the Bible, and started a movement of writing and translating important works into Armenian language. The translation of the Bible was finished by the Holy Translators in 425. The first words written in Armenian were:
“To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding”. (Proverbs 1:2)
The first Armenian translation of Bible is among the world’s oldest, has survived and is still used in the liturgy of the Armenian Church.[2]

Pagan connection

Through the centuries several copies saw the light in different languages. According to the tongue of those languages we got different pronunciations. Even when the name of a person could be written the same it could sound totally different. For example Jesus sounds in Dutch as Yeazeuzs or as some think it comes from “Yea Zeus”.

The problem with speaking out names differently could cause confusion. Also there is the question if certain names were not introduced to bring in such a danger zone of confusing between two different persons, like the example above Yah Zeus (which means laudation to Zeus)

Mainly after the early church fathers, gave into the demands of Constantinople it became important to show a ‘clearer connection’ between the gods ‘the Father’ and ‘the Son’. Just think of how many people in Christendom still tenaciously cling to the pagan concept of the trinity doctrine. They, plus a lot of others, also prefer to use the pagan titles in Scriptures and in their talk. Even after learning God’s name – they now make excuses for their continual worship of Rome’s Three-headed nameless Lord – by saying that Jesus and Jehovah are the same being.

“From ancient time Mystery Babylon has tried to make God what he is not – A Trinity.” (Jesus Messieh Fellowship; The Trinity Doctrine Is Pagan, By Cohen G. Reckart, Pastor)

After the sixties more publications of Bible translations put in their text “Lord” not to go against the grain with someone or not to be able to sell their versions to certain denominations and having less acclaim or popularity. Those publishers wanted to be part of the world and have the gain in their live today.

But do we want the gain of popularity today. Or do we prefer to have the gain after this short earthly life?

When we do prefer to use the word “Lord” (Dutch: “Heer”) we use the word “Baal” or Ba-al. Baal or “Bel (Lord) was the oldest and mightiest of the gods of Babylonia, one of the earliest trinities. He was “Lord of the World. The “doctrine of the Trinity” is first met northeast of the Indus; and, tracing it to Asia Minor and Europe, one recognizes it among every people who had anything like an established religion. It was taught in the oldest Chaldean, Egyptian, and Mithraic schools. The Chaldean Sun-god, Mithra, was called “Triple” and the Trinitarian idea of the Chaldeans was a doctrine of the Akkadians who, themselves, belonged to a race which was the first to conceive a metaphysical trinity. According to the archaeologist Rawlinson, the Chaldeans were a tribe of the Akkadians who lived in Babylonia from earliest times…” (Theosophy, Vol. 52, No. 6, April, 1964 (Pages 175-182) The Chaldean legend)

Though the introduction of “Lord” was introduced to get rid of the Name of God and to be able to say that Jesus was also the same Lord, it does no right to Jesus either.

“What I discovered in most of the versions of the Bible produced by Trinitarians which I studied – is irrefutable proof of intentional mistranslation of words which refer to God… Christian Trinitarians routinely and purposely mistranslate Greek pronouns, so as to promote the doctrine of the holy Trinity.”(The Influence of Trinitarian Doctrine, on Translations of the Bible, by John David Clark, Sr.)

In literature we also can find: “Any true scholar can surely see that these men didnot use the “Entire” word of God to base their theology upon. Rather they chose specific passages to build on their theology, because, influence pagan tribute in a Roman Nation filled with paganism, and governing power was the mindset of Rome. When she allowed these idolatries to be “engrafted” into her church, Rome re-established the teachings of Nimrod into the New Testament Age, and into church dogma.” (Thunder Ministries, The Origin and Development of the Trinity, according to Trinitarian Scholars)

Proclaiming the Good News and the Name of God

So those who want to follow Christ Jesus do better to follow all his teachings and do as Jesus asked his disciples to do, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God, and letting the world to know his Father. Getting to know somebody well is also getting to know his name.

God also wanted that His Name would be known all over the world. From Scriptures we even know that when more people all over the world would know His Name and would tell others about Him, then the end would be near. It is one of the signs of the Last Days, when preaching about God and His Kingdom shall be abundant.

God’s Name can be found in His Word, the Bible. About this Name we can ask if it has to be printed in the four Hebrew signs or symbols, the Tetragammaton, or in letters everybody can read and write or print.

The Hebrew was written without the vowels and is often presented in our four letter word YHWH (JHWH).
To read it, there are several interpretations; and those shall be discussed as well shall we wonder if we need to use the Hebrew Name (and pronounce it as in Hebrew) or can use and pronounce it in the own mother tongue.

YHWH YaHuWaH “YEHOWAH” Yahweh Jehovah

Jehovah’s Name appears differently in the
different languages around the world.
Below is a sample of some of them :

Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, English, Dutch, French, German or any other language

And should we speak aboutYahushua/Yashua (or Yahuwshuwah), “Y’shua” or “Yeshua” (Dutch: Jeshua/Jesus/Jezus), meaning Yahweh saves when we speak about the Son of God commonly known as Jesus today and by many called God the son.

The new trend is that some people do find that we have to restore all the names in the Holy Scriptures. The Tanakh and Messianic Writings should then be called, according to them: Bereshith (Genesis), Shemoth (Exodus), Wayiqra (Levites/Leviticus), Yeshayahu (Isaia), Yirmeyahu (Jeremia), Zakaryah (Zechariah/Zachariah); Tehillim (Psalms), en Mishle (Proverbs), Mattithyahu (Matthew), Yohannan (John), Kepha (Peter),a.o..

So the main point shall be: How far do we have to go to use which names?

Dave Burke rightly wrote: “Jesus must be understood within the framework of his own socio-historical context. While he used language now redolent with Christian connotations, he spoke into the world of 1st Century Second Temple Judaism. It is that world which informs our interpretation of his message and identity. Even our use of the Gospels calls for circumspection, as they echo later Christian reflection.”

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